The Roly-Poly Pudding Or, The Tale of Samuel Whiskers

I have always been of fan of Beatrix Potter and was raised on her stories. Many of you know Tom Twitchit the gray striped cat who seems to get in as much trouble as Peter Rabbit. Well I was thrilled to find a Beatrix Potter story (that I was not so familiar with) that featured rats. When curiosity gets the better of Tom, two rats, Anna Maria and Samual Whiskers, capture the kitten and decide to make a baked pudding out of him.

[Excerpt]: Tom Kitten bit and spat, and mewed and wriggled; and the rolling-pin went roly-poly, roly; roly, poly, roly. The rats each held an end.
"His tail is sticking out! You did not fetch enough dough, Anna Maria."

"I fetched as much as I could carry," replied Anna Maria."I do not think" -- said Samuel Whiskers, pausing to take a look at Tom Kitten -- "I do not think it will be a good pudding. It smells sooty."

To learn what happens, you must read for yourself! It is quite a cute little story and seeing that I am a rat lover, I would not put a story on here that does not end well.

Enjoy!

Iris the Broccoli-aholic

I hope to one day train my rats to be this exciting. She is such a good rat, so well trained, and looks like an exciting pet!

Check her out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrnGwahvYwk&feature=related

Video of Parallax Motion

If you wonder what Parallax Motion looks like, check out this You Tube video. I am hoping to get a few pictures of the little guys on the blog soon.

Go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GyXStLl_2E&eurl=http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/myratswaysherhead.htm&feature=player_embedded

Here is another one (this one looks like he is dancing to the Beatles music in the background): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I55Cw5ber94&eurl=http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/myratswaysherhead.htm&feature=player_embedded


Enjoy!

Adventures with Parallax Motion!

Now this is a funny story.

One evening Tim and I looked in our little guys and found Monkey huddled in a corner acting a little strange. I can only discribe it as it appeared that Monkey was in a trance. Eyes locked on some far away place and swaying side to side as if he was dizzy. Our first impression was that Monkey was sick. So as we always do, we hop onto the Internet to try and find a clue as to what might be the case.

I found scores of people with the same concern and experience and questioning as to what the cause was of the mysterious behavior. I found one website that begged us not to be alarmed, that the behavior was perfectly normal, and actually bares a name. Monkey was exercising what is called Parallax Motion.

Parallax Motion is common in white rats with pink eyes. Rats with pink eyes have a harder time determining the depth and location of whatever they are looking. They also have a harder time seeing in general. To be able to determine how far away something is (if they are not sure or are just curious) they will stare intently and move back and forth to figure it out.

I have to say that we were so relieved and felt a little stupid afterwards. We have only seen Monkey do this once and never Steve. I wonder what Monkey was looking at that had him so drawn to it. I will never know, but at least if this happens again I can be rest assured that everything is alright!

An Adventure With Nervous Sniffles!

Every day is a learning experience with our little guys. As before mentioned it is all new and exciting as well as scary at times.

When we first brought them home we noticed that they were sneezing a lot. One thing that I did know about rats was the constant threat of respiratory problems. If their living conditions and surroundings are not kept sanitary rats can develop congestion which can weaken the lungs and be potentially fatal to their delicate system. I know that this seems a little absurd because a person often associates rats with filthy situations, sickness, and disease. However, it is the same for rats in sewers and garbage heaps. A rats life in these situations is rather limited. It is their ability to reproduce in such a short amount of time that keeps their population up. Just an interesting fact: A rat's gestation period is about 21-24 days and can birth up to 20 rats in a litter. You do the math!

But back to my cute little guys--the non-sewer dwelling, disease-free type.

So Monkey and Steve had the sniffles and for the first week or so Steve seemed to be getting worse. I was moments away from actually calling the vet, when I did some searching on the Internet. As I said, Tim and I keep it close.

We found that most rats suffer from Nervous Sneezing and Sniffles, when subjected to a new environment. It is brought on by the stress of relocation, separation anxiety, insecurity. We learned to leave them alone for a few days and to see if the sneezing subsided. It did! I think what helped was the fact that we did decide to get two rats instead of one. Imagine being pulled away from your pals and placed in a cage all alone. It almost makes me feel like a monster.
Monkey and Steve are the best of buds, and definitely helped one another adjust to a new environment.

We do experience the nervous sneezing and sniffles every now and then when handling the rats. Money and Steve were never handled by humans on a regular basis while they were young, and in every experience of human handling they have been traumatized in one manner or another--seperation from their mother, brothers and sisters, moved from cage to cage, and finally cage to box, a bumpy car ride, and then thrust into a new situation entirely (the Sams home). They are still uncomfortable with being held and usually sneeze their heads off and leave a trail of "Fear Poop" (gross I know but an actual reference). This is something that we will need to work on and is getting better every day.

They do love when we open the door to the cage and are perfectly fine with the human/rat interaction that happens when they are still within the confines of the cage. They are rather sweet in this type of exchange and hopefully soon will move beyond the bars!


They wrestle, which is always a fun thing to watch--especially when they both have one another's tail in their mouths and running around in circles...Hilarious!

Interesting Facts About Rats

Since Tim and I are new at this taking care of rats thing, we keep the internet close. We love reading rat owners blogs and pet rat care sites. One blogger posted some very interesting facts about rats that I would like to share. Here they are:

Rats and People
There has, actually been a long relationship between rats and people-several centuries.

• Ancient Egyptians worshipped rats.

• In Japan, rats are considered a symbol of wealth; the people even set out rice cakes on New Years, and if a rat gnaws on the cake, it foretells a good harvest.

• The Chinese, also, see the rat as a symbol of prosperity; Chinese folklore explains the rat's intelligence and cunning is the reason it's the first animal of the Chinese zodiac.

• Hindus revere rats because of Ganesha, god of prosperity, rides on the back of rats.

• India has a park donated for rats, and a temple dedicated to them.

• Historically, those in Bassora, Turkey, did not allow rats to be killed because they were a sign of luck.

• The first record of wild rats being kept as pets were in the 1800s in England. During this time, "ratting" was a popular sport, in which dogs were put inot pits to kill as many rats as they could. But, Jack Black, was thought to ahve been the first to start selling them as pets.

• In 1976, the first true rat club, the National Fancy Rat Society, was established.
  And, in the first half of the 20th century, they were considered as a suitable pet for children.

Naming the Rats

As before mentioned, Tim and I came home with two rats when only originally planning on bringing home one. We saw all of the rats snuggled up together in their cage and we instantly knew that we could not tear one rat away from the group and expect him to be happy in his solitude. We would learn later that we made a good decision in getting more than one.

We really did not have any choice in the matter of which two we would take. A very pregnant PETCO lass merely folded up two paper carrying cases, reached in and carefully grabbed which ever two tails she could get a hold off first, and handed our new pets over to us. Opening them when we got home was much like Christmas all over again. The rats were a mystery because it was only a matter of seconds between cage and box and we were unable to get a good look at them.

In the car on the way home, Tim and I tried to think of names for our little guys. It was only fair that he got to name one and I got to name one. Tim has an obsession with monkeys and it did not take long for one to assume the name of his favorite animal. It's silly I know, but Monkey would certainly live up to his name. Mine took a little longer to obtain a name. I did not have much experience naming anything more than my beta fish that I had in my younger years. They would always bear names like Bob, Larry, and Ronald, because I have this thing for typical male names. I felt the need to remain with this trend. For some reason Blue's Clues popped into my head and my rat was soon named Steve. He is definitely a Steve.

Thus begin our lives with Monkey and Steve. The two little white-haired, pink-eyed and pink-tailed creatures whose lives and ways are foreign to us, but we are so willing to learn and discover. Tune in next time for more adventures of Monkey and Steve!

New Pets For Newlyweds

My husband and I are recently married, so of course money is tight. We are both animal lovers and our apartment seems so empty without a dog or a cat, but our means does not allow us to splurge on one. There are expenses to consider--food, pet care items, vet bills--things that we could not afford. So on January 2nd I talked to Tim (my hubby) and asked if we could afford something smaller like a guinea pig, hamster, gerbil or rat. I entered the conversation believing that he would tell me that it was out of the question, but thought it was worth a shot. To my surprise Tim said that it would be possible, seemed equally interested, and thus we ventured off to PETCO that afternoon.

After a car ride conversation we agreed that a rat would probably be best for us and walked into PETCO with a plan. Our original plan only involved one rat, but we walked out with two and a My First Super Pet starter kit for rats. We felt like to little kids and their first pet. As a matter of fact this was the first time for the both of us in having such a pet.

So everything is new for us and I thought that it would be fun to document our experiences and times with our new pets. It might be a little funny that a newlywed couples' first pets are rats, but I think it is good to start small and work up. We love having them and find ourselves drawn to them curiously like little kids.

More to come!